June 26, 2025 - Increasing ocean heat content is contributing to sea level rise, ocean heat waves and coral bleaching, and melting of ocean-terminating glaciers and ice sheets around Greenland and Antarctica.

This has caused ocean temperatures to rise slowly, but even small differences can cause significant and dangerous shifts in ocean health and stability. Rising amounts of atmospheric greenhouse gasses have caused many physical changes to our oceans.

April 7, 2025 - If all the glaciers and ice sheets melted, sea levels would rise by a significant 60 metres (195 feet), causing flooding, coastal erosion, land loss, and more. An Amazon river dolphin breaching out of the water in Rio Negro tributary.

Warmer sea surface temperatures influence weather patterns and shift precipitation, causing some regions to experience intense rainstorms and flooding and exacerbating drought conditions and wildfire risks in others.

August 11, 2023 - Between 1950 and 2020, the global ... It induces the expansion of the ocean, alters its stratification and currents, diminishes oxygen availability, elevates sea levels, and intensifies hurricanes and storms....

“But every fraction of a degree ... biome or ice sheet collapse in Greenland or the Antarctic.” · Warmer oceans can change climate cycles, influence storms and melt the polar ice caps....

In addition, rising sea levels can damage infrastructure and make coastal communities more vulnerable to storm surges and flooding. Warmer ocean water also provides more energy for storms to develop and intensify.

A mind-bending amount of energy is trapped in Earth's oceans. Here’s what that means for the planet.

As the excessive heat and energy warms the ocean, the change in temperature leads to unparalleled cascading effects, including ice-melting, sea-level rise, marine heatwaves, and ocean acidification.

July 2, 2024 - As a result, the greenhouse effect increases and global warming trends rise – altering the chemistry and heat content of the ocean. SDG14 covers the main focuses of the ocean emergency, including coastal eutrophication, ocean acidification, ocean warming and sea level rise, plastic pollution, and overfishing. These five major impacts on our oceans, fuelled by climate change, have resulted in broken temperature records nearly every single day over the past year, with massive die-offs due to intense storms, bleaching events, and dead zones (due to oxygen depletion).

Climate change, driven by increased ... impact is the rise in ocean temperatures, which leads to coral bleaching and increases the susceptibility of corals to diseases....

“We know severe temperature rises can lead to mass mortalities of sea life, increase ocean acidification and disrupt the currents that influence our weather patterns, potentially causing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses and ...

January 30, 2024 - Higher-than-normal sea temperatures have widespread effects across the ocean. They cause sea level rise as the water experiences thermal expansion.

May 9, 2024 - The world's oceans may be warming faster than expected and the impacts will be felt from polar ice shelves to many of the world's coastal cities.

July 20, 2022 - The ocean absorbs most of the excess ... affect marine species and ecosystems, causing coral bleaching and the loss of breeding grounds for marine fishes and mammals....

March 24, 2025 - The effects of ocean warming include sea level rise due to thermal expansion, coral bleaching, accelerated melting of Earth’s major ice sheets, intensified hurricanes*, and changes in ocean health and biochemistry.

4 days ago - The transition from El Niño to La Niña in the tropical Pacific Ocean accounts for a slightly lower SST in 2025 than in 2023 and 2024, but the overall pattern is clear. *This graph shows the rise in Sea Surface Temperature since 1958 according to multiple measurements. Image Credit: Pan et al. 2026* The temperature at the surface is critical because it has a powerful effect on global weather.